Fire departments may utilize a combination of full-time firefighters and volunteers to aid in responding to an emergency. Moreover, in many communities volunteer firefighters may be relied upon solely to be first responders during an emergency. For example, in areas with small populations a full-time fire department may not be viable due to cost restrictions, thus emergency response duties may be performed entirely by volunteers.
In the event of an emergency a volunteer firefighter may be informed of the emergency by dispatch. Further, dispatch may request that the volunteer firefighter respond to the emergency. If the volunteer firefighter is available and able, he/she may be expected to respond to the emergency, either by proceeding to a designated fire station or directly to the location of the emergency.
However, for various reasons volunteer firefighters and other first responders may not be able to respond to an incident. This may create numerous communication and logistical obstacles for department personnel, field command, dispatch, and the volunteer firefighters to overcome. One obstacle field commanders or emergency response directors may face is being uninformed of how many volunteer firefighters and first responders are responding to the emergency. By not knowing how many individuals are responding to the emergency, a field commander or emergency response director may be unable to discern if a suitable amount of resources is available to properly handle the emergency.
Another obstacle field commanders or emergency response directors may face is being uninformed of who is responding to the emergency and what type of equipment is being transported to the emergency. It may be appreciated that various individuals in each unit may have different skills or specialties that may be applicable to specific types of emergencies and different types of equipment may be necessary to handle specific emergencies. By not knowing which individuals are responding and what equipment is being transported to the emergency, a field commander or emergency response director may be unable to discern if the available resources may be suitable to handle the emergency.
Further, one obstacle volunteer firefighters may face is not being informed of how many other volunteers are responding to the station with them. When a volunteer firefighter is alerted of an emergency by dispatch, if they are able, they may respond to the fire station to pick up an emergency apparatus (e.g. a fire engine). When they arrive, they may be the first volunteer firefighter or the last volunteer firefighter to arrive. Both situations pose obstacles. For example, if they are the first volunteer firefighter to arrive at the fire station, they need to make a decision whether to go in route with the emergency apparatus or to wait for other volunteer firefighters to arrive. If they choose to wait they must choose how long to wait before leaving the fire station to respond to the emergency. By not knowing how may other volunteer firefighters are responding, firefighters at the station may squander valuable time waiting for other volunteer firefighters that may or may not be responding to the emergency.
Furthermore, if the volunteer firefighter is the last to arrive at the fire station, the volunteer firefighters that arrived previously may make the decision to leave the fire station and respond to the emergency with the emergency apparatus. By not knowing how many volunteer firefighters are responding, the volunteer firefighters at the fire station may respond without having a full crew to handle the emergency.
At least some of the above issues may be addressed by a method for identifying available resources for responding to an incident. The method may comprise receiving a communication from each of a plurality of incident first responders, where the communication is responsive to an incident generated request. Further, each of the communications may be processed to generate a response status for each of the plurality of first responders. Finally, the response status for each of the plurality of first responders may be sent to a remote program. Such an approach may enable improved management of personnel and/or resources using the response status, especially for the example where the first responders include volunteer firefighters.